Sunday, November 29, 2015

God’s Incarnation in our reality, as one of us, whom we meet in Jesus, helps us face reality as it is, and gives us the grace and love and strength to live in it and make a difference.Pr. Joseph G. Crippen First Sunday of Advent, year C texts: Luke 21:25-36; 1 Thessalonians 3:9-13

Sisters and brothers in Christ, grace to you, and peace in the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen

It’s enough to make us crawl under the pews and hide.

Are you tired of this yet? We’ve heard intense words of Jesus from Holy Week for a month, and it’s getting heavy. Especially the apocalyptic. Two weeks ago it was “wars and rumors of wars, earthquakes.” Last week Jesus faced execution. Now it’s signs in the sun, moon, stars, and on the earth. Confusing things will happen, Jesus says, causing people to “faint from fear and foreboding.”

The Gospels are supposed to be Good News. How much more of this can we stand?

But we might have already been under the pews before this. On Thanksgiving, my mother-in-law was in the kitchen and said, “Did you hear the news?” Without thinking, I said, “No, and I don’t want to. I’d like this to be a news-free day.” I don’t know what she meant to share. I just knew I didn’t want to hear it.

Because it just gets worse and worse, doesn’t it? Jesus’ words, heavy and fearsome as they are, barely cover the dread we get by checking the news. Since last Sunday we’ve got at least two more shootings: white supremacists in North Minneapolis shooting into a peaceful protest, someone in Colorado shooting up a Planned Parenthood clinic. By next Sunday surely something else horrible will have happened.

Maybe you could scoot over and make room for me under the pew. We could make a snug little place and hide from this world that intrudes even into the words of our Savior, so that even in here we can’t pretend to be safe, quiet, at peace.

Well, it may be hard to believe, but Jesus’ honesty is actually good news.

In Advent we prepare to celebrate once more the Incarnation of the Triune God into the world. Into our reality.

This is where our salvation begins: God enters our reality, as it is, names it for what it is, and joins our lives, our flesh. It is the death and resurrection of the Son of God that reveals the end of the powers of evil and death that bind us and this world. But it is this coming among us in the flesh that makes that possible. The true God, whom we meet in this Jesus, claims our reality and owns it.

Too often we want religion to insulate us from what’s going on in the world. We want to hide our head in the sand and pretend all is well, and we want God to support that.

The Son of God always does the opposite, from his birth on. Jesus speaks the truth about the world as it is, not as we wish it, and he honestly warns us that things will be hard.

We might not want to hear it. But if we’re going to follow a Lord who can actually save us, I’d rather follow the one who knows the score, who is aware of the suffering and evil of this world, who lives in it with us, than one who paints a rosy picture that I want to see but that isn’t true.

Facing the truth about this world makes our hearts heavy. So Jesus warns us to be on guard for that, and shows us a different way to live.

First, he challenges us not to be so weighed down at heart about the evil and suffering of this world that we live in dissipation.

That is, that we avoid facing reality by wasting our lives, frittering away our time, spending our resources on things that don’t last.

Jesus tells us to guard against avoiding the pain of reality by letting life and opportunity sift through our fingers like sand, pursuing a materialistic culture’s dreams instead of God’s dreams.

Second, Jesus warns us not to be so weighed down at heart that we fall into drunkenness.

To be on guard against seeking things that numb us to the pain of our reality and the reality of the world. Jesus could have said “addiction,” because there are so many things we humans can be addicted to as we self-treat our pain: alcohol, drugs, money, sex, gambling, work, and more. Treating our weighty hearts with false cures that only get us into worse difficulty.

A. E. Housman wrote, “Ale, man, ale’s the stuff to drink / For fellows whom it hurts to think: / Look into the pewter pot / To see the world as the world’s not.” [1] That’s what Jesus warns us against, preferring that we face the hurt it takes to think and see the world as it is.

Third, Jesus tells us to be on guard against being weighed down in heart with worry over this life.

Jesus warns us not to wallow in fear, freeze in our anxiety. This third way is probably most honest, since it sees the truth of the world. But when we worry and are afraid, we get so heavy in heart we are no better off than on the other paths. Jesus would rather we faced reality, not be stuck in it.

But these three warnings are only part of the gift. Only by truly seeing reality as it is can we also deal with it, even overcome it. So Jesus’ last word is the heart of our hope: “Pray,” he says. Pray for the strength to deal with these things.

And Paul tells us what Jesus means.

Paul believes we have all we need from God to endure and thrive in a frightening reality.

Jesus said, don’t let your hearts get heavy. Paul says that the Lord will make us increase and abound in love for one another and for all. Jesus said, pray for strength so you can stand in those days. Paul says that God will so strengthen our hearts in holiness that we will be blameless before God when Jesus, the Son, comes.

So this is our hope: the Spirit fills our hearts with love for each other and for all. When we live in love in a world filled with pain and suffering we are a sign of hope to come. A heart filled to abounding is a light heart, and it’s how we can both find light and be light in a darkening world.

And this is our hope: the Spirit strengthens our hearts in holiness. We think of what we can and can’t do in this world, and we fear. We follow those three paths Jesus warned us against. Being Christ, being holy, is to be set apart as God’s light in the world. Even in community that can feel pretty isolated in an evil world. So our hearts are strengthened for this path of holiness.

It’s good, though, that we begin Advent today. Advent teaches us much about waiting and anticipating. About leaving our hiding places.

Watching the pregnancy of Mary as we once again anticipate celebrating her Son’s birth reminds us that we are in a time of pregnancy. Grace and life in Christ will be born into the world, are being born. But we’re still in the time where we can’t always see how it will be. So sometimes we want to hide in fear.

Like pregnancy, there is much pain associated with the birth of these things, too. So we try to avoid that reality rather than face it.

But the One whom we follow on this path sees all that pain and evil and knows how to deal with it. Has dealt with it. Which means we and all God’s children will not be overcome. The healing of Christ is coming into this world.

So for now, we do as we are told. We pray – for love, for strength. And we wait.

Thursday, November 26, 2015

Jesus teaches us that there is a creational rhythm that undergirds our life together. We have all we need within ourselves because God created us this way. With God’s help, we can embody this rhythm and live as the creatures God created us to be.

Vicar Anna Helgen Day of Thanksgiving, year B texts: Matthew 6:25-34

Sisters and brothers in Christ, grace to you and peace, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

“So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today’s trouble is enough for today.” These words have always meant a lot to me, even before I knew it. Back in 9th grade, I picked this verse as my confirmation verse. I don’t remember what my confirmation class did with these verses, other than including them in the stoles we made out of felt and puff paint, but I know that this verse was meaningful to me. It comforted me as a teenager, and even more so now.

I’ve always been a worrier. In 5th grade I was a part of a synchronized swimming community group. As I held my breath under water and flailed my legs in the air, I’d sob with worry that my mom would forget to pick me up. A few years later, I’d worry about leaving my family for my first week away at summer camp. Now I worry about lots of things. I worry about the weather when I’m on a canoe trip, constantly assessing the clouds in the sky to see if any look ominous. I worry about my family--about their health and their happiness. And I worry about my life, too. That I can find balance and peace. That I can maintain connections with friends as they move to new places. That everything will work out.

Worry gets in the way. It lingers in our brains and tricks us into focusing on something that does not demand the attention we eventually give it. We worry about real problems, but also potential problems, creating worst-case scenarios so that we’re prepared for whatever might come our way. Ultimately, though, worry separates us from others. It hinders our relationships with God and with each other so that all we are left with is ourselves and our worry. If you’ve been there before, you know it is not a good place to be.

In our gospel reading today, Jesus tells those gathered around him not to worry about anything--not life, not food, not drink, not clothing. While these may not be our specific concerns and worries, I think we can still learn a lot from our friend Jesus.

“Look at the birds of the air,” Jesus says, “Consider the lilies of the field.” Jesus invites us to see nature, to really see these creatures as they live in the world. The birds don’t stockpile their food; they receive what God gives them. Likewise the lilies don’t obsess about what they’ll look like in the future; instead they grow and bloom into beautiful creations. Jesus points us to creation because creatures like birds and lilies live without worry. They live as God created them to be!

When I worked as a canoe guide at Wilderness Canoe Base near the Boundary Waters, I learned to worry about the weather. I say learn because I didn’t know going into this job that the weather would be one of my daily concerns. I didn’t know how much space it would take up in my brain or how it would keep me from enjoying the experience of the wilderness. I came to be known as the guide who always went on trail when it was raining. And with the rain came wind, thunder, lightning, and, you got it: worry. Before I’d leave for five days in the wilderness, my friend Emma, another guide at camp, would reassure me, “Anna. You can do this. You are a canoe guide.”

Well, there I was. On another trip. Six youth, one high school volunteer from camp named Rachel, whom I used to babysit, an adult advisor, and me: Canoe Guide Anna. We arrived at a very large lake, Lake Gabimichigami. It was over a mile across and we needed to paddle to the other side to get to our next portage. Per usual, it was raining. And windy. And there were huge waves. Huge. Our canoes were already beginning to fill with water. My worry took over. I couldn’t think. I felt sick. My brain went to those worst case scenarios... My campers will surely capsize and end up in the water. Our sleeping bags and tents will be soaked. We’ll never get warm. I won’t be able to start a fire. And so on.

With the help of Rachel, the one I used to babysit, I was pulled from my anxiety and soon figured out how to deal with the task at hand. She reminded me that I was a canoe guide, that I had been trained for this, and that I had the resources within myself to get through this situation. I realized I didn’t need to worry; I could instead act and carry out my responsibilities as Canoe Guide Anna. We got our four canoes together along the water’s edge, hopped out of our boats, and walked them along the shoreline to our next portage. It took forever and I’m sure we covered way more than a mile in distance, but it worked, and no one swamped their canoe. We survived.

I still return to the Boundary Waters. And I still worry. But little by little, I have come to see the weather as simply a part of God’s creation, living the only way it knows how, releasing energy into the atmosphere as it was designed to do. And it certainly helps to go with some trusted companions on the journey, those friends who can bring you back to reality and remind you that you’ve done this before.

As Jesus invites us to look to creation to manage our worry, we are led back to our Creator, to God who provides all that we need so that we can live the way God wants for us to live and as the creatures God created us to be. I find comfort that there is a Creator behind all this--a Creator who brought all into being and guides us in our efforts to be who God made us to be. A God who cares about relationship. Not only does this comfort me in times of creational chaos, but also in my daily life.

Sometimes we might need a friend to bring us out of our own anxiety and worry and to remind us of our gifts. Sometimes it happens through prayer and other practices that lead us back into relationship with God. When worry is out of the picture, we’re able to tend to our relationships with others and especially with God. Jesus teaches us today that there is a creational rhythm that undergirds our life together. We have all we need within ourselves because God created us this way, and with God’s help, we can embody this rhythm and live as the creatures God created us to be. God made us for this life.

This leads us to rejoice. Without worry, we can celebrate each day, live completely in each moment, embrace who we are fully, and give thanks to our Creator. By rejoicing we give thanks to God: for relationship, for life, for creation, for all that is good.

Today is a good day to rejoice. It’s Thanksgiving! It’s a day to be thankful and to live in gratitude for the gifts God gives us. I am especially thankful for a warm bed, a loving family, friends who remind us of our gifts, and creatures that teach us how to live fully as God intends for us to live.

So look at the birds of the air today. Or consider the lilies of the field. And then, be glad and rejoice! For God has done great things!

Wednesday, November 25, 2015

Growing up, the holidays were a chaos of packing away food, making sure everything was brought along, each kid had a coat and two matching shoes, and, usually late, we would arrive into the warmth of the rest of our families’ jumbling hospitality. At grandma and grandpa’s house, a big, long, mix-match of tables was streamed together and set to serve a most wonderful meal. The kids, as I was, were always at our appropriate table way on the end- the kid table. It was fine, but I felt kind of separate, as if being at the adult table was a rite of passage or a privilege that I couldn’t fathom making it to. Even as a young adult I was resigned to hang out with my cool cousins at our kid table because there was still no room.

Little did I know what making it to that table would cost. It would cost others their ability to be there and fill those seats. Maybe my brother couldn’t make it home, so we missed him, and that seat was a bit less cozy in his absence. Or, unfortunately as life goes, you lose those whose places are permanently established in memory, and the space they leave behind is unfillable. My grandparents have passed away now, and Thanksgiving is no longer at their home. I would fit at the adult table, but it no longer means what it used to. There was always a cost to being at the table. Only a few could fit, and the rest had to wait until there was space.

This is not so with God’s table! It goes on and on forever. There is always room and everyone is served, and loved, and cared for. Can you even imagine? For you and I, stuck in a world of finite space and confined by limited resources, we can hardly even comprehend what that table means. God wants us all at the table. Every last one of us can share in this eternal meal of peace and fraternity and thanksgiving. There are no worries of the day, and no fears of tomorrow, and the cranberries never run out.

There is no kids table way on the end or special circles that separate us. God’s table is set, prepared, and bountiful for each one of us.

As has been our custom for a number of years, the entire offering received at the Eucharist on Thanksgiving Day will be divided between Sabbathani Community Center and Community Emergency Services food shelves.

Advent ProcessionSunday, November 294:00 pm

TRUST Youth: Aliveness Project
Again this year, TRUST Youth will participate in the annual Holiday Baskets activity for The Aliveness Project on Sunday, December 6.

The youth will purchase and wrap gifts to give to families living with AIDS. If you would like to make a cash donation to help purchase Christmas gifts for these families, please contact Julie Manuel at 612-695-6198 or via email to julie.a.manuel@gmail.com

New Member Welcome – Note Date Change!
Mount Olive will welcome new members and associate members on Sunday, December 6, during the second liturgy (please note change of date!). If you are interested in becoming a member or associate member, please contact the office via e-mail to welcome@mountolivechurch.org or by phone, 612-827-5919. You may also contact Pastor Crippen at church, or Andrew Andersen (763-607-1689).

A welcome brunch will follow the liturgy for new members and for all who would like to be part of the welcome festivities.

Tending the Family of God
This week in this city and throughout this country, family and friends will gather at table for a Thanksgiving meal. If someone expected at that table isn’t there, people will notice and people will act.
Every week we in this congregation gather at table for a thanksgiving meal. We call it Eucharist. If someone expected at this table isn’t here, will we notice? Will we act?

Immerse yourself in the beauty and majesty of the Basilica of Saint Mary for the National Lutheran Choir’s signature Christmas Festival Concert. During this busy season of
parties, shopping and rushing around, take time to reflect upon the true meaning of Christmas through sacred song, poetry and readings.

Tickets: $28 Adult, $25 Senior, $10 Student, age 17
and under FREE. For tickets or more information
call (888) 747-4589, or visit www.nlca.com.

Images of God: Thursday Bible Study
The second session of Thursday Bible Study is underway and runs through December 17 (excluding Thanksgiving Day). The study, “Images of God,” is led by Vicar Anna Helgen and
explores how we talk about God through the language of image and metaphor. The sessions will reflect on common images of God and participants will have the opportunity to share a creative presentation of an image of God that speaks to them.

The sessions begin with a light supper at 6:00 p.m. All are welcome.

Mark your calendars!
The Missions Committee will host its annual Fair Trade Craft Sale on Sundays, December 6, 13 and 20. Items from SERRV, a nonprofit Fair Trade organization will be available for purchase after both services. Fair trade coffee, chocolate and other food products from Equal Exchange through Lutheran World Relief’s Coffee Project will also be available. Plan now to stop and do a little Christmas shopping!

Get Involved in Climate Change
Minnesota Interfaith Power and Light is one of the newly adopted mission projects for Mount Olive in 2016 as we strive to become involved in climate change advocacy and to be better stewards of our earth and its resources. MNIPL works together with people of faith to educate ourselves, change our practices to be earth friendly, and advocate in the public arena for responsible policy.

If this is a passion of yours, the Missions Committee needs your help and ideas. Contact Judy Hinck via email to judyhinck@gmail.com, leave a note in the church office, or come to the Missions Committee meeting on Tuesday, December 1, at 7:00 p.m.

Book Discussion Group Update
Mount Olive’s Book Discussion Group meets on the second Saturday of each month, at 10:00 am in the West Assembly Area at church. All readers are welcome! For the December 12 meeting they will read The Turn of the Screw, by Henry James. For the January 16 meeting they will read, All the Light We Cannot See, by Anthony Doerr.

Advent Centering Prayer
All are welcome to participate in an opportunity for contempla-tion during the season of Advent.

Centering prayer will be offered on Wednesday during Advent, from 6-6:30 pm, in the north transept (near the columbarium) prior to Advent Vespers services, beginning December 2.

New to Centering Prayer? Each session begins with a short instruction. A brief reading from the Psalms and the sound of a bell will signal the beginning of a 20-minute period of silent contemplation. The bell will then signal the end of the session which will end with the Lord's Prayer.
Questions? Call Sue Ellen Zagrabelny at 612-875-7865.

Staff Christmas Gifts
As is our tradition, this is the time of year that we gather monetary gifts for our terrific church staff. If you would like to contribute, please note “staff gifts” on your check and deposit it in the offering plate on Sunday morning or send it to the church office. Please have the gifts in by Sunday, December 20.

Tis the season!
As we approach Advent and prepare for Christmas, please consider ways to give beyond gifts, showing love around the community. There are many ways that Mount Olive partners with its surrounding organizations and churches to support good work being done. Here are a few ways to show Christ’s love in our neighborhood!

1) Bring a gift of food (or cash) on Thanksgiving Day or any day to be delivered to CES or Sabathani. Much needed items include: 5 lb. bag of sugar, 5 lb. bag of flour, cooking oil, canned chicken or tuna, soups, baked beans, pasta, white rice, jam, pancake mix, or hygiene items.

2)Coats, hats, mittens, scarves oh my! There is a coat donation area by the little kitchen, and a box for any hats, mittens or scarves to keep bodies warm through the winter.

3) Give a home basket to a resident in Our Saviour’s Transitional Housing. Their 100 Permanent Supportive Housing residents (73 men, 27 women) have all gained their own apartments after years of homelessness and health problems. The residents’ limited budgets make it tough for them to afford many essential items to really make their house a home. Brighten their holidays and ease their budgets by providing a festive gift basket! Please note that we serve primarily men and no children. You may choose what to include, but we suggest items such as:
• Kitchenware (including cooking & eating) • Shower curtains and liners • Mini desk fans
• Basic tools • Throw blankets and pillows • Towel and full bed sheet sets • Headphones • Household décor items such as picture frames • Calendars or day planners • Clock radio • Socks, gloves, hats, scarves, or slippers

Gifts can be packaged in any way: a laundry basket, reusable shopping bag, gift bag, plastic tub, etc. Consider a foldable personal shopping cart for an extra special gift! Feel free to decorate the gift or include a card. ***Can be dropped off in hallway by the coats/kitchen

3)Your TIME. Deliver for Meals on Wheels, help sort and distribute holiday meals for
Community Emergency Services or find a local neighborhood group that needs extra hands and love. If you’re interested and want more specifics, please contact Anna Scott at the office or by email to neighborhood@mountolivechurch.org.

Thank you for the many ways which you've shown love and care for one another and your neighbors this year. Whether a smile, a bag of diapers, a check, some towels, an extra coat. It is all a blessing.

Conference on Liturgy Update
Each January since 2003, Mount Olive has hosted an annual conference on liturgy. We are currently in the process of re-tooling, perhaps re-shaping, and most certainly, re-energizing this conference. We’ve initiated an evaluation process that will look at many things including what kinds of topics will serve as themes, and what time of year might best enable participation for this valuable conference. We’ll consider many facets in that process, and will send a survey to past participants to gather input from them.

As a result, this coming year we are temporarily putting the conference on hold, meaning that this coming January (of 2016), we will not be hosting the event.

While this may be disappointing to some of us, it in no way demonstrates a diminished value – in fact, quite the opposite. We’re confident that when we resume, it will be even better!

Let us pray for one another: a pastoral word (part 1)
Sisters and brothers,

In this community of faith we take seriously and joyfully the privilege and burden of carrying one another and the world in prayer before Almighty God. From time to time questions arise about this: Can we do this better, more faithfully? What information should we share? In the next three issues of the Olive Branch I’ll talk about these issues and perhaps inspire further dialogue.

To help us, we keep a printed prayer list in Sunday’s service folder and the weekly Olive Branch. Many use this list in their daily prayer. However, often names are placed here and left for years, or whose circumstances even I or the vicar don’t know, and the length of the list might in fact inhibit some from praying it. Please note, though: the length of the list is not an issue. It should be as long as it needs to be. The question is whether it can be improved as a tool to help us as we seek to hold others in prayer.

The Congregational Care group and I have a plan. In the next few weeks, Sue Ellen Zagrabelny, of the care group, will call the members on this list who have submitted names of non-members, and ask for information to be shared with the vicar and me. The questions are: 1. Is this person still in need of the congregation’s daily prayer? 2. What in particular are we praying for (so that as your pastor I at least can know what is going on with them)? 3. Can their situation be shared beyond the pastor and vicar? 4. May we give their name to the prayer chain? These questions will also be asked of any new prayer requests, to keep up to date. The vicar and I will take care of the Mount Olive members on the list and make sure that list is still current.

We’ll also make a couple changes in how we list names. First, we’ll keep prayer requests on the list for three weeks and then remove them, unless we’re told otherwise. This will help keep the list as timely and current as possible. Second, we’ll split the list into two sections, those shorter term requests, and more chronic, long-term requests.

Next week, I’ll talk about the question of confidentiality and the needs of our sisters and brothers. In all this, I invite your participation in this dialogue in conversation, thought, and prayer.

In the love of Christ,

- Joseph

Alternative Gift Giving
Are you looking for something different to do this year for Christmas gifts? Take part in a growing tradition by giving gifts that help those in need. The Missions Committee is promoting the idea of alternative gift giving this Christmas. For example, in honor of a loved one, you can buy playground toys for refugee children in Kenya through Lutheran World Relief. We have catalogues from different charitable organizations that you can use or you can order from the organizations’ websites.

Some of these organizations are:

•Lutheran World Relief: http://lwrgifts.org

•Heifer Project International: http://www.heifer.org

•Common Hope : http://commonhopecatalog.myshopify.com

•Bethania Kids: http://bethaniakids.org/creative-giving-catalog

•Evangelical Lutheran Church in America: www.elca.org/goodgifts
(We will have ornaments during the fair trade sale that you can use to make a donation).

Sunday, November 22, 2015

Healing and hope for the world begins when the followers of the Christ, ruler of the universe, follow him, stand as he does, offering themselves to others for the sake of love.Pr. Joseph G. Crippen Christ the King, the Last Sunday after Pentecost, Lectionary 34 B text: John 18:33-37

Sisters and brothers in Christ, grace to you, and peace in the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen

Who’s really in charge here?

A provincial governor, with the authority of a global empire, sits on a chair across from a standing, half-naked, exhausted man. Is this prisoner a revolutionary to be feared? People say he thinks he’s a king.

The prisoner does seem in charge. Jesus shows calm confidence, certain about who he is. He may not look like a king. But he has more authority than the other one.

Jesus is also strangely confident in his followers. Pilate asks if Jesus is a king; he says he isn’t like worldly kings. If he were, Jesus says, his followers would fight to defend him. “My followers know the kind of king I am. That’s why they’re letting this happen. They know my voice, and they follow me.”

Forgive us if we wince. We know what his disciples were doing, and it wasn’t because they understood Jesus’ true kingship. They were running in fear. We know ourselves, too, and we’re pretty sure Christ’s confidence is also misplaced in us. We don’t really understand Christ’s way of ruling the universe, and we aren’t very good at following Christ’s voice.

But we also know that, regardless of who’s really in charge of this world, it’s a terrible mess.

“You will hear of wars and rumors of wars,” Jesus said last week. Don’t we know it.

Global political tension is unbelievably high, and no one in charge knows what to do. Few military options can contain ISIS, if any, and that’s only one horror. No corners of this world are untouched by terrorism, destruction, oppression, murder. Violence against the most vulnerable, women, children, elderly, minorities, doesn’t take a day off. Our city is in turmoil, as many have been, over another suspicious death of an unarmed black person at the hands of authorities. It’s hard to look anywhere and not see intractable, violent, and terrifying problems.

Meanwhile, in our country Christ’s followers seem just fine with fighting and violence. People seeking the U.S. presidency gain in the polls by outdoing each other in bigotry, hatred, disregard for the poor and vulnerable, suspicion of the stranger, often in Christ’s name. When one leading candidate seemed willing to call for a national registry for all Muslims, before he realized it might sound a little too like Germany and the Jews in the 1930s, we know we’re in no position to help the rest of the world. We’re an election away from real repression and increased violence and correspondingly worse terror and fear throughout the world. And Christ’s followers are leading the way.

It’s clear Pilate’s still in charge here. Rule by military might and keeping the peace by violence worked for Rome, until they couldn’t contain what they created. It’s worked for the modern world, too, if by “worked” we mean at least some could live in peace. But the terror and evil our way of life has engendered in this world is coming to birth, and likely can’t be contained. We have the world we have made, and we don’t like it.

But despairing at what’s happening in the world distracts us from this reality: we don’t follow Christ our King very well.

We focus all our attention and concern on the huge issues “out there,” perhaps because that won’t affect our own decisions too much. We decry those “other Christians” as if we aren’t also at fault, as if we hear Christ’s voice well.

Every problem on the world stage appears in our daily lives. Following Pilate’s way, or our way, or Christ’s way is a choice we make with every moment, every breath. What will you do with that person who offends you? How will you react to that one who treats you badly? Or the one who ignores you, shuns you, shames you? Or who angers you? Disappoints you? Betrays you? Or who hates you? Misunderstands you? Disagrees with you?

And how will you be to others? Will you delight to prove you’re right and they’re wrong? Will you bully people to do what you want, or passively manipulate people to do your will? Will you run over people you disregard, or shut people you don’t approve of out of your life, or ignore people that don’t meet your standards? Will you make decisions based on your preconceptions and prejudices instead of taking the time to learn and consider why you feel a certain way? Will you act immaturely because you don’t get your way? Will you act however you want to act, whatever the cost to others?

What does a follower of Christ Jesus the King choose to do in those situations that is different than a follower of Pilate and his cohorts?

Who’s really in charge here? That’s the question.

Who do we let say to us, “That’s not how you should act?” Who justifies our behavior? This matters, because the only way anything changes in Pilate’s world is when people stop following Pilate, are changed by God and start following a different way. When one person commits to nonviolence as a way of life, when one person chooses a way of peace and reconciliation with another who has harmed them, when one person says, “I’m not in charge, and the world isn’t, Christ my King is.”

The problems that plague our world have few solutions in the short-term. But if more of Christ’s followers started hearing Christ’s voice, changing their behavior, following the path of vulnerability and loss, in the long-term real change will happen.

So because it has to start with each of us, in this Eucharist we practice this hard path, we practice our following.

After we’ve heard God’s voice in the Word, and before we eat together at Christ’s table of forgiveness, we practice and learn.

First, always, Christ gives us peace.

Then, remarkably, we turn to one another, one at a time, take each other’s hand, look each other in the eye and honestly, lovingly, truthfully, offer the same blessing of Christ’s peace.

So we practice for the path of Christ our King. You can’t hold a weapon in a hand you’re placing in another’s. When we greet each other this way in this place, it’s more than convention, more than “hello.” It is a holy moment where we follow our King’s voice and say there is no animosity between us and the other, only the peace of Christ. Even those whom we might have problems with, or fear, or whom we feel dislike us. It’s a vulnerable moment where nothing is protecting us, yet the peace of Christ binds us.

Following the voice of Christ our King in the world looks the same. The peace of Christ shapes our actions, our love, our self-giving. We can’t speak of the problems of the world and ignore the person next to us. So we follow Christ’s voice, not our own, not Pilate’s, and reach out in peace.

It’s scary. That’s why we practice here, to learn how to be vulnerable and open and honest with others, as our true King is. That’s also why we need to stay next to that prisoner standing before the throne.

Christ’s confidence before Pilate is ours to claim.

We just take our other hand, the one not holding another person’s, reach up, and take Christ’s hand in ours.

See him before Pilate, knowing what was coming, unafraid. That’s the hand to hold if we’re going to follow our King in self-giving, vulnerable love in Pilate’s world. We hold each other’s hands and the hands of everyone we meet in love and peace as we walk our path together. But we also walk beside Christ our King, holding that hand with all our might.

Then Christ’s confidence and peace of mind and heart become ours. We can do this path with the strength of our King. We begin to hear Christ’s voice and follow, and the healing of this world we’ve so badly damaged begins.

And let’s keep in mind the other thing Jesus seems confident about.

Hear the pride as Christ talks about us to Pilate: “My followers know my voice, they follow me. They know my kingdom is not like this world’s. I trust them.”

It doesn’t matter if we think Christ’s confidence in us is misplaced. This is the One, the true God, whose death and resurrection have begun the transforming of the whole cosmos. The One in whom all things live and move and have their being.

Who are we to say that Christ our King is wrong about us?In the name of Jesus. Amen

Wednesday, November 18, 2015

“President Francois Hollande vowed that France would wage ‘merciless’ war on the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant. . . . He called the carnage [that ISIL inflicted in Paris] ‘an act of war.’” So read the front page article in the StarTribune on Sunday morning.

I despair that France’s president declared “merciless war” (but is there any other kind?). I despair over the deaths in Paris. I despair at all the attention we gave to the French deaths while remaining unaffected by similar tragedies in Beirut, or any number of other places. I despair that well-meaning people fight about that perception that we care for France and not for others.

ISIL is merciless in attacking innocent people in Paris, so France will be merciless in attacking ISIL. That’s the deal. Violence happens, and the only answer is violence. This is how humanity always operates. Last year, addressing graduates of the U. S. Military Academy at West Point, our president said of the U.S. military, “Just because we have the best hammer does not mean that every problem is a nail.” With respect, the problem is deeper than a question of when our military is appro-priately used. We can only see nails, so we always want hammers. Somehow, we need to imagine a different world, where there are no nails, and no need for hammers.

I have no idea what the nations of the world should do about ISIL and the destruction they are sowing. (As of this writing, it seems that apart from President Hollande, most western leaders have no idea what to do either.) I only know that vowing to be merciless in response makes my heart sick.

Next Sunday Pontius Pilate will interrogate Jesus as to what kind of king he is, and where his kingdom is. “My kingdom is not of this world,” Jesus will say.

But we live in this world. So we need to learn how Christ rules. We follow the Christ, ruler of all that is, whose Spirit fills our hearts, making us anointed ones, Christs. If Christ rules over all things, then Christ rules over this world, too. But not as we would rule.

God’s response to the world’s murderous violence is to take it on, and be killed. Not to be merciless. I don’t know what that means for governments who have to protect citizens. I do know that I cannot, as one who follows the Christ, condone humanity’s continuing obsession with violence and violent response. At the least, I know I am called by the crucified and risen King whom we serve to follow the path of God, where nails may harm me, but where I cannot pick up a hammer.

The Triune God’s hands and feet are marked by our violent nails. I expect that is our destiny, too.

As has been our custom for a number of years, the entire offering received at the Eucharist on Thanksgiving Day will be divided between Sabbathani Community Center and Community Emergency Services food shelves.

New Member Welcome – Note Date Change!
Mount Olive will welcome new members and associate members on Sunday, December 6, during the second liturgy (please note change of date!). If you are interested in becoming a member or associate member, please contact the office via e-mail to welcome@mountolivechurch.org or by phone, 612-827-5919. You may also contact Pastor Crippen at church, or Andrew Andersen (763-607-1689).

A welcome brunch will follow the liturgy for new members and for all who would like to be part of the welcome festivities.

Sunday’s Adult Forum
November 22: "Looking at Luther Through Finnish Eyes: Toward A New Understanding," part 2, presented by Dwight Penas.

Advent ProcessionSunday, November 294:00 pm

Many Thanks!
Fair weather on Sat., November 14, allowed for the rebuilding of the retaining wall on the
front corner of the church yard.
Many thanks to Steve Manuel for several hours of work he spent freshening up our presence on the corner. And, we had fun working together!

- Art Halbardier, Director of Properties

Tending the Family of God

If a member of our family were to go missing, we would be making phone calls, we would be talking to people who might know where our missing family member was, we would be sending people out to search for the one who was missing - and nothing would be quite right again until the one who was missing had been found.

In this congregation, we are a family of faith. So why is it that so often when one of the members of this family does go missing, we carry on a through nothing has happened? Shouldn’t there be
phone calls made, people talked to, search parties sent out?

Because, really, nothing can be quite right again until
the one who is missing has been found.

Images of God: Thursday Bible Study
The second session of Thursday Bible Study is underway and runs through December 17 (the study will not meet Thanksgiving Day). The study, “Images of God,” is led by Vicar Anna Helgen and explores how we talk about God through the language of image and metaphor. The sessions
will reflect on common images of God and participants will have the opportunity to share a creative presentation of an image of God that speaks to them.

The sessions begin with a light supper at 6:00 p.m. All are welcome.

Conference on Liturgy Update
Each January since 2003, Mount Olive has hosted an annual conference on liturgy.
We are currently in the process of re-tooling, perhaps re-shaping, and most certainly, re-energizing this conference. We’ve initiated an evaluation process that will look at many things including what kinds of topics will serve as themes, and what time of year might best enable participation for this valuable conference. We’ll consider many facets in that process, and will send a survey to past participants to gather input from them.

As a result, this coming year we are temporarily putting the conference on hold, meaning that this coming January (of 2016), we will not be hosting the event.

While this may be disappointing to some of us, it in no way demonstrates a diminished value – in fact, quite the opposite. We’re confident that when we
resume, it will be even better!

Book Discussion Group Update
Mount Olive’s Book Discussion Group meets on the second Saturday of each month, at 10:00 am in the West Assembly Area at church. All readers are welcome! For the December 12 meeting they will read The Turn of the Screw, by Henry James. For the January 16 meeting they will read, All the Light We Cannot See, by Anthony Doerr.

Advent Centering Prayer
All are welcome to participate in an opportunity for contempla-tion during the season of Advent.

Centering prayer will be offered on Wednesday during Advent, from 6-6:30 pm, in the north transept (near the columbarium) prior to Advent Vespers services, beginning December 2.

New to Centering Prayer? Each session begins with a short instruction. A brief reading from the Psalms and the sound of a bell will signal the beginning of a 20-minute period of silent contemplation. The bell will then signal the end of the session which will end with the Lord's Prayer.
Questions? Call Sue Ellen Zagrabelny at 612-875-7865.

Tis the season!
As we approach Advent and prepare for Christmas, please consider ways to give beyond gifts, showing love around the community. There are many ways that Mount Olive partners with its surrounding organizations and churches to support good work being done. Here are a few ways to show Christ’s love in our neighborhood!

1) Bring a gift of food (or cash) on Thanksgiving Day or any day to be delivered to CES or Sabathani. Much needed items include: 5 lb. bag of sugar, 5 lb. bag of flour, cooking oil, canned chicken or tuna, soups, baked beans, pasta, white rice, jam, pancake mix, or hygiene items.

2)Coats, hats, mittens, scarves oh my! There is a coat donation area by the little kitchen, and a box for any hats, mittens or scarves to keep bodies warm through the winter.
3) Give a home basket to a resident in Our Saviour’s Transitional Housing. Their 100 Permanent
Supportive Housing residents (73 men, 27 women) have all gained their own apartments after years of homelessness and health problems. The residents’ limited budgets make it tough for them to afford many essential items to really make their house a home. Brighten their holidays and ease their budgets by providing a festive gift basket! Please note that we serve primarily men and no children. You may choose what to include, but we suggest items such as:
• Kitchenware (including cooking & eating) • Shower curtains and liners • Mini desk fans
• Basic tools • Throw blankets and pillows • Towel and full bed sheet sets • Headphones • Household décor items such as picture frames • Calendars or day planners • Clock radio
• Socks, gloves, hats, scarves, or slippers

Gifts can be packaged in any way: a laundry basket, reusable shopping bag, gift bag, plastic tub, etc. Consider a foldable personal shopping cart for an extra special gift! Feel free to decorate the gift or include a card. ***Can be dropped off in hallway by the coats/kitchen

3)Your TIME. Deliver for Meals on Wheels, help sort and distribute holiday meals for
Community Emergency Services or find a local neighborhood group that needs extra hands and love. If you’re interested and want more specifics, please contact Anna Scott at the office or by email to neighborhood@mountolivechurch.org.

Mark your calendars!
The Missions Committee will host its annual Fair Trade Craft Sale on Sundays, December 6, 13 and 20. Items from SERRV, a nonprofit Fair Trade organization will be available for purchase after both services. Fair trade coffee, chocolate and other food products from Equal Exchange through Lutheran World Relief’s Coffee Project will also be available. Plan now to stop and do a little Christmas shopping!

Alternative Gift Giving
Are you looking for something different to do this year for Christmas gifts? Take part in a growing tradition by giving gifts that help those in need. The Missions Committee is promoting the idea of alternative gift giving this Christmas. For example, in honor of a loved one, you can buy play-ground toys for refugee children in Kenya through Lutheran World Relief. We have catalogues from different charitable organizations that you can use or you can order from the organizations’ websites.

Some of these organizations are:

•Lutheran World Relief: http://lwrgifts.org

•Heifer Project International: http://www.heifer.org

•Common Hope : http://commonhopecatalog.myshopify.com

•Bethania Kids: http://bethaniakids.org/creative-giving-catalog

•Evangelical Lutheran Church in America: www.elca.org/goodgifts
(We will have ornaments during the fair trade sale that you can use to make a donation).

Minneapolis Area Interfaith Initiative
MAII is a group of lay and clergy volunteers from the Greater Minneapolis area who are committed to increasing interfaith understanding, organizing interfaith programming and encouraging personal relationships across faiths in Greater Minneapolis. We involve a diversity of faith communities as well as various parts of Greater Minneapolis. MAII is a member of Twin Cities Interfaith Network (TCIN) and North American Interfaith Network (NAIN).

Religion is a core identity for many people. The religions of the world have many common values that could be built on to solve local and international issues. Too often the differences between religions and within religions are used to polarize and foster discrimination, fear, and hate.

The objectives of this organization are to increase interfaith understanding and personal relationships across faiths in Greater Minneapolis in order to build a stronger, more peaceful and more respectful community, to educate the public in greater Minneapolis about local religious traditions, focusing on common values as a way to unite to solve problems locally and throughout the world; and to strive to understand and respect religious differences, without needing to come to agreement or seeking to convert.

This group holds various meetups on a variety of topics. These gatherings are open to the public. Visit them on Facebook for information about these meetings if you are interested in the important work of this group (https://www.facebook.com/maiimpls) or call 763-639-5298 for more information.

End of Frenzy, Free to Plan
It’s been a hectic several months of urgent masonry repair and roofing repair to prepare our historic church building for winter. Repairs to stained glass windows continue. Weather has been wonderfully favorable. Maybe it will continue?

Other activities in my arena have had to take a back seat. But, now it is possible to begin looking forward.

I would like to gather two committees to meet over the next few months to begin planning for several potential projects:

1.A group to look at options and formulate a plan to air condition the sanctuary, to look at the potential of solar energy to offset the cost of electricity as well as reduce our carbon footprint, and to consider lighting alternatives.

2.A second group to develop plans for improved and more easily maintained landscaping around the property, improvements to the Parish House entry, and a plan for upgrading the South parking lot.
If you have an interest in participating in one of these groups, please be in touch with me no later than November 30, so work can begin soon after. Either contact me via email (pastorarth2@comcast.net) or a phone call (763-639-7701.

Joining one of the committees is NOT intended to become a lifetime commitment. The goal for these groups will be to prepare a plan for consideration before summer of 2016.

Architect Todd Grover, who worked with us on the 2010 Parish House remodel, will participate with these groups in a planning process.

Do you think these projects are important? Interesting? Timely? Please be in touch soon so we can begin.

-Art Halbardier, Property Director

TRUST Youth: Aliveness Project
Again this year, TRUST Youth will participate in the annual Holiday Baskets activity for The Aliveness Project on Sunday, December 6.

The youth will purchase and wrap gifts to give families living with AIDS. If you would like to make a cash donation to help purchase Christmas gifts for these families, please contact Julie Manuel at 612-695-6198 or via email to julie.a.manuel@gmail.com

Sisters and brothers in Christ, grace to you, and peace in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

A few weeks ago I was looking through old photos at home because my uncle asked that I find pictures of my grandpa to share at his 90th birthday party. I started with a box from when I was a teenager that contained all the pictures I’d taken on my first trip to the Boundary Waters in 2002. As I went through the photos, I noticed something interesting. Nearly all them were of natural things: waterfalls, flowers, lakes, trees, rocks, and so on. There were very few pictures of people. As I looked at each photo, I could hear my 15-year-old-self experiencing this place for the first time and exclaiming things like, “What beautiful lakes! What an amazing red pine! What an interesting rock formation!”

We’ve all been there before and have taken a picture of something that demanded our attention. We’ve stood in awe before a beautiful building and wondered how something so magnificent was ever built. We’ve looked up in wonder at a redwood forest and imagined what it was like when these trees were small. We’re drawn to these structures and places because of their permanence. They are strong. Lasting. Beautiful. They evoke wonder and awe. We’re fascinated by them because they create some sense of stability in the midst of our chaotic lives.

For the disciples, the temple was the place that elicited the “ooohs” and “aaahs” and evoked a sense of wonder. It was an architectural marvel, standing on a rectangular platform and surrounded by a retaining wall that was almost one mile around. The Roman historian Tacitus described the temple as a mountain of white marble adorned with gold. It had courtyards, porches, balconies, covered walkways, and stairs. It was the center of religious life, the place where God dwelled, the most spectacular building in all of Jerusalem, and the disciples couldn’t help but comment on it. What large stones! What large buildings!

And then Jesus tells his disciples that the temple will be destroyed. All of its buildings. All of its stones. It will all be thrown down. I can’t imagine what it would be like to stand in the midst of such grandeur and majesty and be told by Jesus of all people that it will all come crumbling down. The disciples want answers. When will this be? What will be the sign? How will we know? But Jesus gives none. He only goes on, “Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; there will be earthquakes in various places; there will be famines.” The disciples are left wondering about an uncertain future.

It would be nice if we too could be prepared for these types of events, but unfortunately, they have become an everyday occurrence in our world today. All we need to do is pick up a newspaper and read the headlines: war, hunger, violence, terrorism… disease, racism, human trafficking, and climate change...these are the realities we face today--realities that bring death. They shatter communities. They destroy homes. They tear families apart. They bring fear, chaos, and isolation. They catch us off guard and surprise us. They break us down.

We experience these events on a regular basis. Death of a person or a place. The end of a career. A broken relationship. Illness. The loss of a home. And now, a brutal attack in Paris on the innocent. Death affects our loved ones, but it also affects those whom we don’t know. Those who live across the globe and speak other languages, even those who live right here in our neighborhood whom we don’t notice.

We’re never quite the same as who we were before our encounter with death: before the diagnosis, the fire, the refugee crisis. Death changes us and shapes us into who we are today. We carry it with us in our bodies and hearts, each scar and wound a mark of its constant presence in our lives. What remains are our broken bodies, grieving hearts, and wondering minds. Sometimes we wish we could go back to how things used to be, when life was more stable and less confusing, when there wasn’t so much to worry about. Hope can be hard to come by in this dark territory and it’s easy to feel helpless, alone, and even abandoned.

Like the disciples, we want answers. But instead of providing them, Jesus comforts: “Do not be alarmed; this must take place, but the end is still to come...This is but the beginning of the birth pangs.” These words might sound a little empty to us, almost like someone saying after a heartbreak, “Oh don’t worry, honey. It’ll all work out in the end.” But this is Jesus speaking here! And sharing his message with the disciples just days before he will be put to death.

Instead of being overwhelmed by the future destruction of the temple, Jesus draws the disciples from despair and into hope. He reminds them that something new is coming and will be birthed from all this destruction. It won’t happen at the snap of a finger, but more slowly, like a baby growing inside its mother’s body, a glimmer of life taking shape with each passing day.

Death is a reality of our communal life together, and for us to live fully as God intends we must live in hope with one another. We must live as a resurrected people. Hebrews gives a lovely description of what this looks like and how it might come about:

“Let us hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who has promised is faithful. And let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day approaching.”

Living in a community of hope means we rely on one another when life gets hard or when these experiences of death creep up on us. Because it is hard to be alone. So, together as God’s people, we cling to the confession of our hope without wavering: that God is faithful. We build one another up by encouraging each other to love and acts of service. We don’t forget to show up. We send sympathy cards, make phone calls. We pray for those who witness brutal violence and tragedy, and we advocate for change and justice. We become bearers of hope for one another. Bringers of light to a broken world. We speak up for those with no voice and stand with those who are invisible. Because in moments of death, it is hard to cling to hope. We need each other.

But we also know that God promises to show up. The temple has been destroyed, and yet God is here among us. Jesus is put to death and thus enters our pain, despair, and suffering, and now there is no place of darkness where God’s light will not shine. Slowly, God will begin to heal our wounds and scars, opening a new way for all of us. It is not the end, but the beginning. It is not death, but life. “For he who has promised is faithful!”

So let us hold fast to this confession of hope without wavering:
That God is faithful and will not abandon us!
That God will not bring us down.
That God will stand forever.
That God dwells here with us.
That God brings resurrection!

Death is not the final word. God is among us...Turning endings to beginnings, and creating life from death. And this is worth proclaiming boldly! What an amazing God!

Thursday, November 12, 2015

Alice Parker is coming to town!
I hope I’m not violating something by beginning on a very personal note. (Alas, I’ve already typed the word “I” three times, and the next word marks another!!!). I have two people at the very top of my mentor list. There are many mentors on the list, but these two have had the most profound effect on me. These mentors are Paul Manz and Alice Parker.

What they both did (and Alice still does) is the same thing. They spark an interest in congregational song. In fact, they both also had/have amazing abilities in drawing any gathering into singing, and singing in creative and meaningful ways most would think not possible for any gathering without a big rehearsal.

In Paul Manz’s case, he invited meaningful and full-voiced singing through the organ. I’ve spent a career working on understanding how he did that, and specifically what it was he did which produced such eager response. Some of it is very practical: clear communication about when to breathe, and a reliable pulse. But it was his creativity that became the icing on the cake. We all noticed the words intensely as he inter-preted them though his use of the instrument (the organ and the congregation’s voice), and he would take us on a journey every time a hymn was launched. In the end, however, what we remembered was the hymn’s meaning – more than the particular notes he played and/or how he played them.

In Alice Parker’s case, she leads her “SINGs” with her own lone voice (as she calls it, feeble elderly lady’s voice). Again, it begins somewhat practically: one doesn’t need anything to sing – just our voices. We don’t need accompaniment, and there are no quality police grading us in comparison to Luciano Pavarotti, or Leontyne Price. Like children, we wind up singing freely, free of judgment. For me, what she added to that, and to an already rich set of experiences with Paul Manz, is an awareness of where and when the song comes to us from. Through that we uncover the vast variety of musical style the church has always had in its songs. The absence of instruments actually points that out intensely – as that’s usually where our assumptions go to find variety. Chant is very different from a Victor-ian British hymn! Latino music has its dance, as does a chorale from the Renaissance era . All of that comes to life. But also, like Paul Manz, she regards the congrega-tion as the instrument, inviting all kinds of unusual, surprisingly delightful sounds that bring out the hymn and its meaning.

This Sunday afternoon, Alice Parker, still full of energy, will lead one of her signature sings right here at Mount Olive. She became best known with her collaborative work with Robert Shaw – especially in connection with the Shaw Chorale recordings of Christmas carols. She researched each candidate carol, and, if selected, would help arrange them for choir for the recordings and publications. Since then she firmly has established herself in her own right as composer, musician, recording artist, and lover of melody and hymnody.

Her energy, enthusiasm, and ability to entice is very infectious.
Sunday at 4:00, here at Mount Olive. Don’t miss it!!!

Church Clean Up
The Altar Guild will sponsor a Thanksgiving/Advent /Christmas clean-up of the worship areas of Mount Olive from 9 am to noon on Saturday, November 14.

We anticipate that the renovation process will be substantially completed by then. Any help from congregational volunteers would be greatly appreciated.

Please contact Steve Pranschke if you are willing and able to volunteer for this effort.

Thank you,

- The Altar Guild

New Member Welcome – Note Date Change!
Mount Olive will welcome new members and associate members on Sunday, December 6, during the second liturgy (please note change of date!). If you are interested in becoming a member or associate member, please contact the office via e-mail to welcome@mountolivechurch.org or by phone, 612-827-5919. You may also contact Pastor Crippen at church, or Andrew Andersen (763-607-1689).

A welcome brunch will follow the liturgy for new members and for all who would like to be part of the welcome festivities.

As has been our custom for a number of years, the entire offering received at the Eucharist on Thanksgiving Day will be divided between Sabbathani Community Center and Community Emergency Services food shelves.

Advent Luncheon for Seniors to be Held Wed., December 2
Attention Seniors (65 and over)! Be on the lookout for your invitation to the annual Advent Luncheon for Seniors. The invitations are in the mail!

If you are age 65 or over and have not received your invitation, it’s likely because we do not have your birthdate on file. If that’s the case, please let us know (and update your membership information)! All members of the Mount Olive Community age 65 and over are cordially invited!

"Welcoming” is Also Parking

The smaller north lot received new stripes and signs last week. By next Sunday, this new sign will be placed at the entrance. The intent is that for worship and other events and activities, those who
need to park nearer the door will have a better chance of finding a spot in this lot.

Five spaces are reserved for those with a state permit for disabled parking access; the remaining five are unmarked. These are available for additional disabled parking, as well as for individuals who may be experiencing mobility difficulty, but do not have the state permit.

Providing easy accessible parking is one more aspect of being “welcoming” to all who come to Mount Olive. On weekdays, this lot is used for staff parking and other visitors. But the above aspect of “welcoming” is still some-thing to consider. From time to time, the five reserved spaces have been used by many of us for convenient short or longer-term parking. Rationale: “Nobody uses these spaces during the week.” How can we be sure of that? What does it say to someone with walking difficulty who arrives to visit the pastor, come to a meeting, visit Diaper Depot – whatever - to find the reserved spaces occupied?

We can let these individuals know they are welcome by parking in the other lot or on the street. Some of our staff members have taken the lead in this. The rest of us can also show those with a special need that they are welcome at all times!

The SINGs led by Alice Parker have delighted groups all over the United States and Canada since she started leading this kind of program forty years ago. The unique feature of these SINGs is
their high musical accomplish-ment – the sheer beauty and communicative power of the singing. The atmosphere is one of delight in joining in music-making, and of ease in creating varied sounds. A reception will follow the event in the Chapel Lounge. This event is free and open to the public – bring a friend!

Sunday’s Adult Forum

November 15: "Looking at Luther Through Finnish Eyes: Toward A New Understanding,"presented by Dwight Penas.

Images of God: Thursday Bible Study
The second session of Thursday Bible Study is underway and runs through December 17 (the study will not meet Thanks-giving Day). The study, “Images of God,” is led by Vicar Anna Helgen and will explore how we talk about God through the language of image and metaphor. The sessions will reflect on common images of God and participants will have the opportunity to share a creative presentation of an image of God that speaks to them.

As always, the sessions begin with a light supper at 6:00 p.m. All are welcome.

Tending the Family of God
If a member of our family were to go missing, we would be making phone calls, we would be talking to people who might know where our missing family member was, we would be sending people out to search for the one who was missing – and nothing would be quite right again until the one who was missing had been found.

In this congregation, we are a family of faith. So why is it that so often when one of the members of this family does missing, we carry on a through nothing has happened? Shouldn’t there be phone calls made, people talked to, search parties sent out?

Because, really, nothing can be quite right again until the one who is missing has been found.

Transitions Support Group

All are welcome at Transitions Support Group. If you’re looking for new ideas or encouragement to meet the challenges or uncertainties that are before you, join us on Wednesday, November 11, at 6:00 pm (that’s tonight!).

This is an opportunity to share in fellowship, prayer, and discussion with others in the Mount Olive community.

Transitions Support Group meets on Wednesday, November 11, from 6- 7 pm at Mount Olive in the lower level Youth Room, and will be facilitated by Cathy Bosworth and Amy Cotter. For more information, please contact Cathy at 612-708-1144, marcat8447@yahoo.com, or Amy at 612-710-1811, agate651@gmail.com.

All Saints Sunday
Many thanks to the Cantorei for the hard work preparing for Faure's Requiem in our All Saints Eucharist on November 1. Also, we extend sincere appreciation to two people inadvertently left out of the bulletin list of participants: Steve Nelson, Harp, and Joyce Brown organ. Our apologies for the omission, and our gratitude for the gifts!

A Very Big THANK YOU from the Scotts!

We are very blessed to be among such lovely people who have supported us in our journey to marriage, and we hope and trust you will con-tinue to do so in all our adventures ahead.

Thank you to Andrew Andersen, Lora Dundek, Mary Crippen and the many others who helped us celebrate again on November 1st. Thanks also to so many for your kind words and cards. It is a joy and a treasure to us. Thank you also to Pastor Crippen for his encouragement to us along the way, to Paul Nixdorf for taking photos, and to Randy Fritz who made us a beautiful, delicious cake for our wedding day. It has all been very appreciated. Thank you!

- Anna & Josh

Book Discussion Group Update
Mount Olive’s Book Discussion Group meets on the second Saturday of each month, at 10:00 am in the West Assembly Area at church. All readers are welcome! For the November 14 meeting they will read The Elegance of the Hedgehog, by Muriel Barbery, and for December 12 they will read The Turn of the Screw, by Henry James.

Advent Centering Prayer
All are welcome to participate in an opportunity for contempla-tion during the season of Advent.

Centering prayer will be offered on Wednesday during Advent, from 6-6:30 pm, in the north transept (near the columbarium) prior to Advent Vespers services, beginning December 2.

New to Centering Prayer? Each session begins with a short instruction. A brief reading from the Psalms and the sound of a bell will signal the beginning of a 20-minute period of silent contemplation. The bell will then signal the end of the session which will end with the Lord's Prayer.
Questions? Call Sue Ellen Zagrabelny at 612-875-7865.

Profiles: the unexpected guest
Last Thursday the day started normally. Plunking along in the morning, the doorbell rang and in walked a young man straight for my office. He was friendly and polite and asked to come in. Then everything went haywire. I soon realized that I was dealing with a very unstable, mentally ill man who was desperately searching for some semblance of reality or guidance. Anything, really. He was lost and scrambling around for answers and somehow thought that Mount Olive may be a place he could find some. It was uncomfortable in a way, because I felt so incapable of giving him what he needed. He asked "what do you do here?" "Church," I replied. That's not what he wanted to hear, but it was actually what I needed. I needed to remember that this suffering struggling man was not someone to quickly pass along to the next place or hurriedly get out the door because he was not easy. This was not someone to disregard because I couldn't possibly cure his illness or fulfill his requests, so 'off you go sir, I've got other things to do.' No, this man may have come in looking for treatment or a remedy that I couldn't give him, but I could give him my time and some grace. He stayed for close to an hour and a half. We called two mental health hotlines and a treatment center. We made a plan. Eventually he left and my heart returned to a normal rate. But I was shaken. Not necessarily because he scared me, but because I was afraid for him - walking around in the world with such pain and fear. Please, friends, remember and pray for those whose reality is crumbling and for whom fear reigns in their lives. Let’s have the church be the refuge and the sanctuary. I don't know if I made a difference for my friend on Thursday, but he made a change in me.

In Our Neighborhood
Powderhorn Park Neighbor-hood Association will hold its Community Meal and Annual Meeting on Thursday, Nov. 12. Dinner will be at 5:30 pm and elections and meeting at 6 pm. Celebrate the gift of community with the neighbors of Mount Olive!

A Wish List
Parents in Community Action, Inc. Head Start serves the community of children and families experiencing hunger, homelessness, poor access to resources, and the devastating effects of poverty. They will host the annual Head Start Health Fair for neighborhood children and families and are requesting any donations of new or gently used prenatal or early childhood supplies: things like diapers, wipes, clothes, blankets, bottles, toys, formula, etc. Any donation will help and goes directly into the hands of the most needy children and families in the neighborhood. Donations can be dropped off in the coat room near the upstairs kitchen and are needed before Friday November 13. Thank you! Please call Anna Scott at church with any questions.

Time to think about commitment.

In a few days you’ll receive a letter from Mount Olive’s Stewardship Committee, inviting you to give serious thought to your financial commitment to support our mission and ministry in 2016. In October, the congregation voted to accept the budget recommended by the Vestry. Now it’s time for us as individuals and households to make our respective commitments to the work we will help make happen—within the walls of our building, in the neighborhood, in our nation, and in places around the world.

Two thousand sixteen will be another challenging budget year. The improvements that were necessary to preserve our building resulted in the need for a $270,000 mortgage. Combined with the usual salary and benefit increases, this resulted in a significant budget increase. Included is our usual 12% tithe to support our mission in the neighborhood and around the world.

On Sunday, November 22, again on Thanksgiving Day, and yet again (in a more low-key way) on Sunday, November 29, we’re giving members three opportunities to present a pledge card or some other token of their commitment to our work in 2016. We’ll process with our offerings on the first two of those days, and on November 29 you’ll see a box or basket, perhaps near the font.

In recent years we’ve been on-again, off-again about whether we do or don’t process to present our pledge cards. Now we think we have a better idea. Processing is a gesture that can become a meaningful part of our liturgy. But it shouldn’t, we think, be an exclusive “parade of the pledgers,” if by pledge we mean a card the bears our name(s) and a dollar figure. Commitment is a better and more inclusive term.

Here’s why. Of all members who made general-fund gifts of $1 or more in 2014 (our last completed year), only 49% turned in a pledge card. Yes, those pledgers contributed 69% of our general-fund dollars. But without the one-third of our revenue given by non-pledgers we would have been, well, in big trouble. Indeed, some of our largest gifts to the general fund come from non-pledgers, including, in 2014, three of the twenty largest gifts and seven of the next twenty.

So for us commitment means, first and foremost, that as individuals or households we make a commitment or promise to ourselves and to God that we’re going to do our best to give a certain amount of money to Mount Olive’s general fund in the year ahead. That’s what most of us do annually, isn’t it?

Should those among us who are traditional pledgers give it up? No! We’d like to see the numbers of those filled-in cards increase. Among other things, they give us an early indication of whether or not we’re likely to get the revenue we need. And if some members have been non-pledgers chiefly for privacy reasons, they should know that at Mount Olive Administrative Assistant Cha Posz, a member of another congregation, is the only person who sees what each of us gives annually.

Some of us are likely non-pledgers for reasons of tradition, theology, or philosophy. That’s fine. What pledgers and non-pledgers have in common is that we commit ourselves to providing our share—however each of us defines that—of the resources needed for our mission and ministry in 2016.
So whatever you present on one of those two Sundays or on Thanksgiving—a filled-out pledge card, a blank one, or some other token (maybe one of the green cards in the pew racks)—think commitment as you do so. And please consider praying that you and all of us may be strengthened in commitment and mission.

- Donn McLellan, director of Stewardship

Church Library News
Mount Olive's library recently received a large and unique collection of CD recordings, originally owned and developed by Mr. Ed Mikkola, an elderly member of Mount Olive, who in younger years was a church organist. The original collection of CDs, were given in 2003, some from Cantor Cherwien, and the larger group of about 60 were on loan to us from Dan Burow. That last grouping has now been removed from our display and a new selection of a similar amount from Mr. Mikkola's collection have been chosen, processed, and are now available for check out in our current CD rack. (Did you know that in 2003, Dan Burow hand-made the CD rack that has displayed our older collection all these years, and now contains our new selection just debuted this month?) Be among the first to come in and check out one of these special new additions to our library resources!

Speaking of Dan Burow, be sure to look for his brand new book entitled, "I Remember When -- Rev. & Enlarged," which was a recent gift to our library. If you have been a regular reader of his columns in the TRUST and CoAM newsletters, you will delight in settling back for a wonderful afternoon or evening of reading from this new book to reminisce along with this talented author. Look for his book on display in our church library right now!

Thanks to Elizabeth Beissel who recently brought us another item of interest on display. This is TIME's Special Edition entitled "Francis: The Pope's Bold Message Comes to America," by John L. Allen, Jr., a journalist who covers the Vatican for The Boston Globe and who is the Senior Vatican Analyst for CNN. This is a beautifully done and accurately portrayed record of the Pope's recent visit to America and you will want to stop in some time to sit down and relish the tapestry of sights and photos in this great edition. This item is for display only and not for check-out.

Those of us who are seniors are often concerned with our lack of energy and flexibility. I will conclude this article with a couple of examples that might help spur us into further health efforts: 78 year-old metal sculptor Rochelle Ford, writes, “Every morning when I wake up I say, ‘I’ll never be as young as I am today. Today is the youngest day of the rest of my life. Therefore, get up and do something fun.’” ----- 88 year-old Yvonne Dowlen, a figure skater, writes, "As you grow older, if you don't move, you won't move!” -----79 year-old Harriet Anderson, the oldest female to ever finish the IRONMAN World Championship, writes, “I used to think 50 was old. I was wrong. It is not even close!” --- Lastly, 88 year-old award-winning choreographer Dame Gillian Lynne writes, “The secret to staying young and being happy is loving what you do and loving the person you are with. It’s as simple as that!”

What special things to ponder indeed!

- Leanna Kloempken

Road Trip!
Christine Skogen invites all to join her for her junior organ recital, to be held in the Center for Faith and Life at Luther College, 700 College Drive, Decorah, Iowa.

The event will take place on Thursday, November 19, at 6:30pm, in the Main Hall. The recital will include works by Bach, Widor, and Fletcher.

Sunday, November 8, 2015

God helps us break down the barriers of fear that keep us from walking the path of Christ, a path where we find abundance, and God’s grace given and received with our companions on that path.Pr. Joseph G. Crippen Twenty-fourth Sunday after Pentecost, Lectionary 32 B texts: 1 Kings 17:8-16; Psalm 146; Mark 12:38-44

Sisters and brothers in Christ, grace to you, and peace in the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen

That story is not all fun and games for Elijah, either.

The LORD God sends him to live in a foreign country, in the midst of a drought, and ask a starving widow to take care of him.

How could any of us say what Elijah’s told to say to an emaciated woman, gathering sticks for her last fire and meal? Feed me, and God will bless you. Feed me first, in fact, even though you don’t have enough for you and your son. How could we ask anything of someone who says, “I’m going home to prepare a meal, and then my son and I will die”?

We’re not just concerned about Elijah, either. These two widows and those who surround them raise complicated questions. What is Jesus really saying about the poor woman who gave away her last coins? How does God sustain the widows and orphans, as today’s Psalm declares, along with the rest of the Hebrew Scriptures, and at the same time command this widow to give away her last meal? What on earth does any of this have to do with us?

That last question is the one that’s most tricky and dangerous.

Every November the lectionary gives to one Sunday readings that deal with money in some way, likely because many congregations focus on stewardship now. So do we at Mount Olive. In a few weeks we’ll all bring our promises of what we will give next year to our shared work together and offer them to God. These readings are sometimes viewed as great texts to convince people to dig deep and give.

Unless we don’t want to use Scripture to manipulate emotions and motivate by guilt. It’s what’s often done. How quickly is the widow and her offering made an object lesson about how miserly we are, giving only a little bit to the church when she gave all her money? How often are these widows lifted up as paragons of faith, implying none of the sluggards in the pews approach their devotion?

It may be there are lessons for our stewardship here, but we’re not going to find them by manipulatively using these widows as leverage.

That happens when we preach these readings apart from the grace of God that loves and saves the world.

God’s grace does not manipulate. God’s grace doesn’t shill for an institution. God’s grace doesn’t send people on guilt trips in hopes of motivating them.

The love of the Triune God for the world is so great God became one of us, taught us a healing way of love and life, died at our hands, rose from the dead, and now makes all things new. That truth gives joy and purpose to our every breath.

We can’t lay it aside every time we get a juicy, legalist interpretation of Scripture that sometimes is effective in getting certain results, but at the cost of true faith and discipleship.

If we’re going to understand anything about these two widows we have to look at them through the lenses of Christ’s life, teaching, death, and resurrection. We need to know before we begin where God’s grace is.

Grace today starts with “she gave everything she had.”

This tense moment with the scribes is right in the middle of Holy Week, and at the end of this week Jesus will, in fact, give everything he has.

That’s the grace at the heart of this story, and the story from Kings. This isn’t news to us; every time Jesus invites us to discipleship it comes from this grace, but in different clothing, different metaphor. We always look into the eyes of the Son of God who says, “I’m going down this path, where I will lose all to save all. Follow me.”

Days from his death, this isn’t metaphor for him, it’s real. These widows gave everything they had; Jesus, the Son of the Living God, will give everything he has. Those who follow are told, “this is the path of life, to lose as your Master loses. That’s where you’ll find true life.”

Well, we have boundaries, barriers we’ve raised that keep us from walking out onto Christ’s path. We see three in these stories.

To walk with Jesus, we need to take down the barrier of what we think is enough.

If we’re frightened by anything these widows do, it’s their giving everything. We’re glad to share with others, even generously. But everything? What if we don’t have enough?

If we share our wealth, will we have enough to live on till we die? If we share our love, what if we’re drained by someone who doesn’t give back? If we share our time, what if we’re asked to give time we can’t spare?

But what we mean by “enough” can change. When we see people who thrive on much less income and “necessities” than we do, we see that “enough” is a flexible idea. Our criticism of people who seem to be unable to function at income levels we can’t dream of reaching is another sign of the multiple meanings of “enough”.

When we take down our “enough” barrier, we find the abundance of a God who has no limits to love or grace, who always provides. We find there’s “enough”, even when we die to our fears, because our Lord is risen, and there is life enough for all.

To walk with Jesus, we need to take down the barrier of whom we love.

Who are the people whom you cannot say “no” to? Whom can you not refuse to love, to help financially or otherwise, to give your time, your energy, your life? That’s the boundary.

This foreign widow opened the circle of those to whom she couldn’t say no to include Elijah. There’s no earthly sense in sharing her last meal with a stranger. The boundary of her circle was changed.

We fear taking down this barrier. We struggle because we think some aren’t deserving of our help, and some don’t belong to us. We fear we’ll be overwhelmed by people who need us, that if we don’t limit our giving of wealth, life, time, love, we’ll be drained dry.

And the One who was crucified and whose life flowed out onto the ground says, “When did I ever tell you otherwise? Of course that’s the risk. And of course some don’t deserve it. Do you?”

When we take down this barrier so we can walk the path with Christ, we find the grace of God to love others regardless of whether we think they deserve it, or that they belong to us. We find the strength of God not to worry about being taken advantage of. And we find the joy that we are never alone, because now all are in our circle.

To walk with Jesus, we need to take down the barrier of whom we let love us.

Who are the people whom you allow to help you, to love you? Whom you trust to reveal your pain, your need, your difficulty, and permit to care for you, give you grace? That’s the boundary.

Elijah’s willingness to ask a starving woman to feed him opened him up to the grace of God for her, her son, and for himself.

We fear taking down this barrier for lots of reasons. As we heard a few weeks ago, for some our pride causes us to hesitate to let others know of our need. For others of us it’s our anger, our fear, our shame, or other reasons. This barrier can be higher and stronger than the others. We don’t like being seen as needy, or trusting others to meet that need. We can be comfortable seeing ourselves as God’s presence to others. We’re frightened of the vulnerability it would take to let others be God’s presence to us.

When we take down this barrier so we can walk the path with Christ, we are given the courage of God to let others help and love us. And we come full circle to the first boundary, because when others can love us, we’ll always have enough.

There is death in taking down our barriers. Losing our protection is frightening.

But the path on the other side is with the risen One who destroys death and makes all things new. Who gives the grace of a new sense of what is “enough,” and the joy of being connected to all, both in our care for them and their care for us.

We are made new in Christ’s death and resurrection, for this path. Once our protections are dropped, our lives begin to flow in love toward God and neighbor and the love of God and neighbor flows toward us and we finally live the life God dreamed for us. Where no one is left out, where the abundance of God is for everyone, where all find their jars and jugs filled to the brim, and we live together in the peace and fullness God intends, until our Lord returns.

This is not fiction. Not in the life of the Triune God. This is the new thing our risen Lord is making. And it lies on the path of Christ that stands before us.